Lady Cardinals Hope for More Wins

WAITSBURG – Second-year Waitsburg girls' varsity basketball coach JT Elsey hopes a strongly unified team will result in a winning season for the Lady Cardinals.

The '97 WHS grad played football, basketball and track during his school years. He then coached junior high basketball for two years before coaching the Hawks, an elite youth Touchet Valley traveling basketball team.

Elsey coached the WP freshman boys in 2014 and then marked his debut as head coach for the WP Lady Cards last year.

This year, following the dissolution of the WP combine, Elsey hopes to see Waitsburg bring home some wins. He is assisted by Tally Ross, who also coaches the JV girls.

Last year, Elsey hoped the high number of returning seniors would make for a strong team, but that didn't happen. This year's team loses 2015 grads: Kassidy Kuykendall, Paige Wood, Analise Salazar, Loegan Harshman and Hannah Grant. ,

With only one senior player, Elsey says this year's team is much younger and less experienced, but he hopes their positive teamwork will compensate.

"The girls are really becoming a team and uniting with each other," he said. "They are more receptive to each other and just a more mature group as a whole. We've got some pretty good leadership this year," he added.

Varsity team members are: senior Caitlyn Mohney; juniors Taylor Hays, Annie Araya, and Lexi Brannock; sophomores Chloe Pearson, Deja Williams, and Ariel Sandau; and freshman Devon Harshman.

Elsey is ready to see the girls hit the court in their first game of the season against Prescott, their former teammates, on the Prescott court on Friday at 3 p.m.

"I'm looking forward to the season. I'm excited!" he said.